Installing a Fuel Tank Dipstick

[DinoKanuck]

Morning:

Anyone have some experience on installing a dip stick into the access cover of fibreglass diesel fuel tank?

The 30 US Gal (113 litre) fuel tank on our LM 28 has a new sender but it does not seem to be “linear”. I dropped in 36 litres and it indicated over half-of-a-tank. When I added another 50 litres it went to about 90 percent.

Anyone ever do such an install and willing to share thier advice?

Below are pics of the tank’s access cover through which I’d like to install cover for a dip stick hole. on pic is the cover on he tank and the other is the fibreglass cover on profile

Dino K
LM28

 

[Stu Jackson]

I would strongly recommend against doing that. More holes are potentials for elaks. Instead, keep a fuel log.

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,3841.0.html

In addition, the stick won't be any more linear than a sender if you have an un-rectangular tank.

 

[kjretlaw]

Although my gage appears to work, and provides me a fair representation of the fuel in the tank. I have a 1" dowel that I've marked in 2 gal increments for my tank. Learned this one from my dad who never had a fuel gauge on any of his boats.
Just make sure the dowel is long enough that it can't fall into the tank and file notches in the dowel for the increment markers.

 

[David W]

I have round tank and a dipstick.

The previous owner 'calibrated' the stick by adding fuel one gallon at a time, dropping the stick in, and making small notches for each gallon added. He then painted each notch with nail polish.

Works like a charm. I have the advantage that my fuel filler goes straight down into my tank so no extra holes needed in the tank.

 

[capta]

I believe the sender can be calibrated for any shape tank. If there is a web site, I'd check it out.

 

[Benny17441]

Yes a stick can be calibrated but why go through all the trouble when a pencil is the only stick needed. Install an hour meter to the wiring in the key switch. Learn and refine over time your average "burn rate" and keep a log in a notebook indicating the number of hours at which the tank was topped off. If you have a 20 gallon tank and your engine burns around 1/2 Gallon Per Hour you will roughly have 36 hours of usable fuel. Just check the hour meter and see how many hours have gone by since you last filled up and you can easily calculate how much fuel you have used and how much should remain. By refining the average burn rate you can get real close to actual usage. I'm consistently inside 1/2 gallon of the estimated fuel usage and that is better than any gauge and less cumbersome than a stick.

 

[Maine Sail]

It would be much easier to calibrate the gauge based on actual gallons in the tank. This is pretty easy if you know the tanks capacity.

#1 Drain tank

#2 Fill tank at 25% of capacity increments.

#3 Your first mark on the gauge glass will be 1/4 tank. A Sharpie or paint marker works well.

#4 Your second mark on the gauge will be 1/2 tank

#5 Your third mark will be 3/4 of a tank

#6 The last mark will be full.

#7 If you really want to get fancy you can take the gauge apart and make a new gauge face with your custom marks on it.

 

[DinoKanuck]

Thanks all for the input.

The dip stick may be a winter project but MaineSail's Sharpie System can be done tomorrow.

At the start of the season fuel tank was pumped clean and wiped clean. http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=154184 I took a picture of the fuel gage after the first 36 litres were added and then when an additional 50 litres were added.

These photos will give me the 36/113 mark or about 1/3 mark and the 86/113 mark or 3/4 mark. Just need to find the photos!

Dino

 

[MrBill_FLL]

don't diesel tanks have the pickup off the bottom like gas tanks?

so your 20 gallon tank is only 18gal usable ?

just something to consider when making your stick... (or you need to drain the tank to know where empty is). -its not really empty when you can't suck any more out of the fuel line.

 

[DinoKanuck]

Mr. Bill:

Yes. When I cleaned the tank I determined that the "pick up line" stopped 1" above the bottom of the tank. See photos in link above


Dino

 

[Steve Dion]

We installed a WEMA USA sender. It works fine but we also have A fuel log.